Piggie Monday

Hopefully we can bring you some cheer on this grey and chilly Monday by introducing these cute Guinea Pig Tea Spoon Rests!

These first two are based on my own guinea pigs, Eric (the black one) and Ernie (the orange one)







If you buy them in pairs (because guinea pigs are social creatures and should be kept in pairs ;D) You can use one for the spoon and the other for the tea bag!



The ones below are all for sale £4 each or two for £7:









The two below we had a slight problem with the brown glaze. It doesn't affect their usefulness just their tidiness. So they are reduced to £3.50 each.





Hope these piggies have brought a smile to your face, Eric and Ernie always make me smile.

Lookit the Pretty Lights

We made a couple of really simple half sphere moulds to use for slip casting to create bases for various ideas. They work great as simple tea light covers if you cut holes in them too.

At the CCC we're big fan's of star gazing so star shapes was a natural choice.





The ones with circular holes look kinda like the moon by day too!





All lit up.



The more lights you put inside the more  fun the effect!




Lookit all the pretty stars! X3



Candles can make the ceramic hot so care should be taken and of course care should always be taken with candles anyway. You could use LED tea lights instead which are now readily available and much safer. :)

These tea lights are all for sale.

The large ones are £10 and are approx. 17cm diameter
Small £8 and are approx. 12cm diameter

Brains Arrrgghh!

It's Friday, everyone could use some extra brains on a Friday.

So here's some brains that double as coasters.


There's your regular brains...




And of course, zombie brains...




And I don't know what the heck happened to this brain...



These brains are useful even after your real brain has gone to mush!



Brain coasters are £8 each.
Each one is hand moulded from a push mould created by me and hand glazed.
They will have rubber feet to protect your surfaces.

A Curious Flock

I first showed my new bird shaped birdfeeders back in July 2014 with a post about how I made the slip mould from the original sculpture.
Now at last they are finished, and I'm really cuffed with how they've turned out!
I decided to glaze them as British bird species.

There's Robin:



Greenfinch:



Bullfinch:



Goldfinch:



And Bluetit:



It's hard to choose a favourite out of these guys, I love the Bluetit and Goldfinch a whole lot but the others turned out great too!

I think they'd look pretty nifty with a tea light in their tummies as a table ornament too.

They are all for sale *much as I'd like to keep them.*

They are all hand made from start to finish by me. If you read the mould making process linked above you'll see just a part of what that involved. It makes each one an individual and unique.
I certainly don't intend to be making masses of these because as much as I love them, the time involved just to glaze them is huge, so you will be buying a very special limited edition piece.

They are approximately 20cm tall.

I can't guarantee frost resistance. I have items I've made in my garden surviving just fine but there's no real guarantee so if you live in cold climes I suggest it might be best to bring them in in winter or use them as an indoor ornament.

Price is £40 each except for the Bullfinch which is £35 due to a slight crawl on the red glaze which has left some white areas, though it's not all that noticeable and doesn't detract from the overall look.

Hedgehog Family

Today seemed a good day to reveal some hedgehoggy ceramics as I got video of my real life hedgehog friend Pog for the first time last night!
(Pog's first video)

I've always been a fan of hedgehogs so when we were trying to decide what to do with some slip cast tea light domes that had gone a bit past leather hard I decided they might look cute as hedgehogs.

I think they make a cute family, don't you?







One of the small hedgehogs has already been rehomed, but Momma hedgehog and the other baby are available to buy.

Momma has a slight crack which is unnoticeable under the glaze but these are not frost proof so for summer or indoor use only just to be safe.

A tea light underneath looks lovely, it can make the ceramic hot though so care should be taken.
They make fun ornaments just as they are too!

Momma hog is approx. 19x16cm and 10cm tall  and costs £15
Baby Hog is approx 15x12cm and 8cm tall and costs £10
If you want both I'd consider a discount.

These are one of a kind, designed,  hand sculpted and hand glazed by me.

Totoro Incence Burner

We've done a glaze firing, rather than post everything at once I'll make several themed posts to show you what we've made.

Some items will be for sale so do get in touch.

This first one however is a little personal project.
I'm a huge fan of Totoro from Studio Ghibli's movie, My Neighbour Totoro and I've made ceramic versions of him before. When I realised I needed an incense burner and something to catch the ash I knew I wanted it to be shaped like Totoro. I made a leaf to catch the ash and there's even a little Sho who can be used to stub out if I only want to burn half a stick of incense.

One Year Later...

Wow it's almost a year exactly since I wrote a post here!
It's taken that long to make enough to fill the kiln!



We have planters, garden ornaments, pet bowls, leaf bowls, bird feeders, some thrown dishes, soap dishes, tea light holders, and various other random bits.

Here's Totoro and Shuu, incense holder and snuffer.



Hedgehog garden ornament, my first attempt and inlaying slip of a different colour, I am pleased with the result.




Fox garden ornament, first time using coloured slips, pleased with the results.




Badger garden ornament, more slip inlay and slip decoration. the slip decoration was put on when the greenware was too dry and this means it's cracking away from the base in places after firing unfortunately.




Stoat garden ornament, had more trouble with the slip cracking away again on this one.




Another version of the snail shell garden ornament.



Bird bird-feeders. X3



Brain coasters!



Tea light holders.



And a sea otter soap dish!




Now we've got a lot of glazing to do!